Introducing a People Niall C. McElwee, PhD President, Irish Association for Social Care Educationl Head of Department, Athlone Institute of Technology, Athlone, Ireland N mcelwee@ait.ie & Ashling Jackson, M.A. Lecturer in Sociology, Department of Humanities, Athlone Institute of Technology, Athlone, Ireland Adugganjackson@ait.ie & Grant Charles, Ph.D., R.S.w. Assistant Professor, School of Social Work and Family Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. This paper is one in a series of three papers viewing aspects of native cultures and, in this instance, will primarily define the Traveller population in Ireland, give a brief history of this population whilst discussing racism and some of its implications. There will be a particular focus on current systems of health, education and child protection in order to determine Traveller experiences of these key child and youth care related service providers in Ireland. The second paper will focus upon an examination of the experiences of aboriginal people in Canada. It will have a particular emphasis upon the marginization of aboriginal children and youth within the dominant culture. The third paper will be a comparison of the issues experienced by Traveller and Canadian aboriginal populations in terms of the helping systems.